• ogafef_al_se7ab

project, which is scheduled to be finalized by the team in charge of studying the project within two months from now, and we expect it to make a significant quantum leap in the path of Saudi sports, especially sports clubs . His Highness the General President of Youth Welfare thanked His Royal Highness Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin Abdul Aziz and his team members , for their great efforts since the major national task was assigned to them , that was handled with a lot of hard work , looking at the positive experiences in a number of advanced countries in this field , and using global experience with major specialized world centers to contribute to the development of a general strategy for the privatization of sports clubs , that combines technical, financial, and legal elements, and developing a mechanism to increase the financial resources of the clubs and identifying their investment points. Two World Companies to Study the Privatization of Saudi Clubs The General President of Youth Welfare Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal, signed in March 2012 two contracts with the two world companies “Detloit” and “SNR Denton” to study the privatization of the Saudi sports clubs. “Detloit” will offer consulting services on the technical and financial levels, while “SNR Denton will take care of the legal affairs, noting that the contracts’ duration is of nine months and that several meetings and workshops will be held between the two companies and the working team of privatization and clubs investments. However, the final step remains unclear. Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin Abdul Aziz, the head of the team working on studying the privatization and development of Saudi sports investment, stated: “we hope that the signing of contracts with companies of such high level, will constitute the final step towards the privatization process, that will benefit the sports sector in the Kingdome”, expecting that this step will make a quantum leap that everyone in the kingdom is looking for. Al Nowaiser: Privatization is not a New Concept Mohamed Al Nowaiser, President of the Saudi Pro League asserted that the privatization concept is not new, noting that the Saudi Arabian Football Federation launched this process about five years ago and made a significant progress towards its completion, stressing on the fact that the current investment is a part of the privatization process. Al Nowaiser considered, following the final stage, that “the television broadcast turned to private channels with large profits for the benefit of the clubs, while the incomes from matches tickets was transferred to the clubs’ funds after acquiring the right of promoting and selling them, in addition to the ads in the stadiums and on the shirts. These steps help in the privatization, so the future investor targeting the clubs can see them financially prospering instead of sunk in depts.” He added: “who would have expected that private companies will pay sponsorship sums reaching 40 million per year, as it is currently happening with the Al Hilal Club, as well as with some other companies paying huge amounts.